Sunday, April 21, 2013

Reading about low energy nuclear reactions, (LENR), I came across several theoretical references to protons capturing heavy electrons and then participating in nuclear reactions as a result. The heavy electron, because it sits in a much tighter orbit around a proton, serves to shield the proton's positive charge from other unsuspecting nuclei until the proton has crept in close enough to fuse with them via the strong force. In modern day LENR parlance, it is speculated that these sufficiently heavy electrons exist in materials, (condensed matter), as a result of the periodic potential due to crystal lattice sites, and the wave nature of the electron, (more on this later), leading to a higher effective electron mass.

While the previous paragraph describes theories of how LENR might occur in present day experiments, it's based on a set of actual observations made in the 1940s and 50s, (picture 1)[6]. In 1958, Luis Alvarez in a report to the Unitied Nations[8 open access] on high energy physics announced that his team had observed several muon catalyzed fusion events. A muon is a naturally occurring particle that is a member of the same family of particles,(leptons), as the electron. The muon has the same charge as an electron, but it is about 200 times more massive. As a consequence of this extra mass, the hypothesis described above for heavy electrons actually takes place. Interestingly, it was reported in the proceedings of a liquid scintillation conference[5] that as far back as 1958, the term cold fusion was being reported by the press and even then creating a fair bit of mayhem.

You may have heard how Canadian uranium stocks fell several months ago when a newspaper carried the announcement that uranium was now unnecessary because of the discovery of 'cold fusion'.

Jackson, of Jackson EM book fame, did an analysis of the process in 1957 and writing in the +American Physical Society's Physical Review[3] determined that in all likelihood, without a much cheaper source of muons, it would be impossible to derive any useful power,(picture 2). For more detail on Jackson's involvement and a rather complete explanation of the subject in general, check out Wikipedia[7].

Alvarez and Jackson both mention that similar observations had been made as early as 1947[1][2].